It’s too soon for the Federal Reserve to begin thinking about raising interest rates despite a strengthening U.S. economy, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said on Sunday.

Mr. Fisher, a self-described inflation hawk who opposed the central bank’s latest round of bond purchases, said the weakness in first quarter U.S. economic growth, which nearly stalled according to the latest gross domestic product reading, was due to “weather-related one-off events.”

Encouraged by a report on Friday showing a gain of 288,000 new jobs, Mr. Fisher said the better trend is likely to continue.

“We expect , and I certainly expect, to get the kind of numbers we just saw,” Mr. Fisher said in an interview with Fox News. “We’re moving in the right direction.”

Asked about the potential timing of eventual interest rate hikes, Mr. Fisher said it was too early to start the debate. He noted the central bank is gradually paring down its bond purchases, having reduced them to $45 billion per month at its April policy meeting.

“I personally expect us to end that program in October. That’s the first step,” he said. “Then we have to see how the economy is doing, including these broader measures of unemployment, and where we stand, before we can talk about how we might move the short-term rate.”

“I’ll make this prediction: Sometime in the next 100 years, interest rates will go up,” Mr. Fisher quipped.

The Fed has held rates effectively at zero since December 2008. It has also purchased some $3 trillion in mortgage and Treasury bonds to help revive the economy.

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